I bought a used Aliner last year.  But I don't know why Aliners and
Chalet's are more expensive.  The wall materials may be a little more
expensive than canvas, but I can't believe that the hinges and
everything on an Aframe are more expensive than the lifting mechanisms
and slides for a canvas popup.

My primary reasons for buying the Aliner wasn't for the hard sides.
Rather it was for the ease of setup which can be done in about 30
seconds after leveling.  This is attractive because I don't stay in one
spot more than a night or two.  It's easy to stop in a rest area or
parking lot and open it up for lunch and then shut it up again.
I prefer it over a TT because of the lower profile and lighter weight
for towing.

What is a Base Camp unit?  Can you provide a link?

It actually makes sense to me why a pop up of any kind (including chalet and
aliner) would cost more than an equivalent hard sided trailer (if you could
actually make the comparison). There is much more engineering going into the
popups. I suspect the whole lift mechanism is probably more involved to
engineer and manufacture than a hard sided trailer. Other issues might be
the amount produced. I see a lot more hard sided trailers out there than
popups, which makes them cheaper to produce. There is a lot more that goes
into the price of something than price of raw materials.

And yes, not having a lot of competion does help keep the price up.

Years ago when I owned my first house, I really wanted a dishwasher, but had
no room for one. Then I learned that Sears sold one that was half as wide as
a normal dishwasher. Cool! I was surprised it also cost more. Smaller
dishwasher? less materials? lower price? right? wrong. I had it all
explained to me by some engineers, and it made perfect sense (so I bought it

Laura